Journal: Grace Journal
Volume: GJ 13:1 (Winter 1972)
Article: "The Passover Plot": Verdict, Not Guilty
Author: Gary G. Cohen

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GJ 13:1 (Wtr 72) p. 33

The Passover Plot: Verdict, Not Guilty

Gary G. Cohen

Professor of New Testament
Biblical School of Theology

The Passover Plot by Hugh Schonfield (1965) had eight printings in 1966–67 alone. Today copies of this influential book can be found in bookstores throughout America and Europe. We can partially see the reason for such a massive circulation when we read the sensational cover on the Bantam Book paper edition: “Did Jesus really Die on the Cross? The Stormy Bestseller, by Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield, Author of Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Further on the inside of the cover we read:

A few centuries ago The Passover Plot would have brought the author death at the stake if not worse. (Baltimore News American)

Why has this book created so fierce a storm of controversy? Why has it become a coast-to-coast sensation? The answer is not hard to find:

The Passover Plot asserts—and presents detailed evidence from the Bible and from the newly discovered Dead Sea Scrolls to prove—that Jesus planned his own arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection; that he arranged to be drugged on the cross, simulating death so that he could later be safely removed and thus bear out the Messianic prophecies.

Never before has so eminent an authority presented so challenging a thesis—or backed it up with such irrefutable evidence. Never before has a single book caused so many to question deeply the very roots of their belief….

GJ 13:1 (Wtr 72) p. 34

Startling…. The author reveals himself as a more careful student of the New Testament than many Christians who read it devotionally. (Dr. Daniel A. Poling, The Christian Herald)

Let the following be noted concerning this book:

I. First of all, Schonfield must be seen to be attacking the very citadel of Biblical Christianity. It is at once apparent that the above sayings on the inside cover of the book are sensational claims. If indeed Schonfield has proven that Jesus “arranged to be drugged on the cross, simulating death so that he could later be safely removed,” then what Schonfleld has actually proven is that the Historic Christian Faith is false and that Jesus was really not our sinless Saviour. Christ over and over affirmed the absolute necessity of his dying as the Messiah for men’s sins, and he labelled the suggestion of his avoiding making this atoning sacrifice as a Satanic suggestion (Matthew 16:21–23). Indeed the Old Testament prophets demand a Messiah without any “deceit in his mouth,” who dies, and who rises again (

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